Codex Borgia

Pre Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico

The Codex Borgia (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Borg. mess.1), also known as Codex Borgianus, Manuscrit de Veletri and Codex Yohualli Ehecatl, is a pre Columbian Middle American pictorial manuscript from Central Mexico featuring calendrical and ritual content, dating from the 16th century. It is named after the 18th century Italian cardinal, Stefano Borgia, who owned it before it was acquired by the Vatican Library after the cardinal's death in 1804. Its ethnic affiliation is unclear, and could either have been produced by Nahuatl speaking Tlaxcaltec people, Cholulteca people, or by the Mixtec.

The codex is made of animal skins folded into 39 sheets. Each sheet is a square , for a total length of nearly All but the end sheets are painted on both sides, providing 76 pages. The codex is read from right to left. Pages 29–46 are oriented perpendicular to the rest of the codex. The top of this section is the right side of page 29, and the scenes are read from top to bottom, so the reader must rotate the manuscript 90 degrees in order to view this section correctly. The Codex Borgia is organized into a screen fold. Single sheets of the hide are attached as a long strip and then folded back and forth. Images were painted on both sides and painted over with a white gesso. Stiffened leather is used as end pieces by glueing the first and last strips to create a cover. The edges of the pages are overlapped and glued together, making the sheet edges hardly visible under the white gesso finish. The gesso creates a stiff, smooth, white finished surface that preserves the underlying images.

The Codex Borgia was brought to Europe at some point during the Spanish colonial period. The Codex seems to have been the property of the Giustiniani family before being donated to Stefano Borgia; indeed, an indigenous book from Mexico is mentioned as being part of the 1600 1611 inventories of the Guardaroba of Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani, although the identification of this catalogue entry with the Borgia itself is still unsure. It could have reached Europe even earlier, for, as noticed by Franz Ehrle, there is a gloss in page 68 of the codex in wrong Italian which suggest a 16th century Spanish priest, which uses a manicule or hand sign typical of the era. The Borgia is first mentioned with certainty as forming part of the collections of Cardinal Stefano Borgia in Veletri, the Museum Borgianum Veliternum, catalogue number 365, "Gran codice messicano in Pelle", valued in 300 scudi. After the death of Borgia, these objects became property of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, which created a Borgian museum of its own within its headquarters at the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide. Stories about the codex prior to its acquisition by Borgia are difficult to verify: oral tradition at the Congregation asserts that it was saved in 1762 from an Auto da fé in Mexico, while baron von Humboldt mentions that it belonged to the Giustiniani family, eventually falling into the hands of neglectful servants who damaged the manuscript with fire, only to be saved by Borgia. In 21 April 1902, Borgia's collection was moved to the Apostolic Library of the Vatican, where it is currently housed. Most of them are devoted to the different aspects of the Tonalpohualli, the Central Mexican divinatory calendar. In general, the codex presents the associations between time periods, gods, and 'mantic images', or iconography with a divinatory content.

Pages 15 to 17 depict deities associated with childbirth. Each of the twenty sections contains four day signs. The bottom section of page 17 contains a large depiction of Tezcatlipoca, with day signs associated with different parts of his body.

Prognostications related to different activities being performed by gods, including religious activities (Tonatiuh, Ehecatl), woodcutting (Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli), agriculture (Tlaloc), crossing a river (Chalchiuhtlicue) travelling (red Tezcatlipoca), and the ball game (black Tezcatlipoca).

The upper side of page 22 presents two deer, one white, with closed eyes and surrounded by precious regalia, and other being pierced by a dart or arrow, which gives its name to the section. Pages 22–24 present the ritual qualities of the 20 day signs.

Two directional almanacs, one depicting four deities (Tlaloc, Xipe Totec, an unidentified Mixtec god, and Mixcoatl), and a directional almanac related to death, associated with four deities.

Pages 27 and 28 center on the Postclassical period central Mexican rain god Tlaloc, associated to the 4 quarters and the centre, as well as the qualities of the rains that he will bring, some destructive, some beneficial.

Having no discernible parallels with other manuscripts within the Borgia Group, the interpretation of this section has varied strongly throughout the years. Its first interpreter, the jesuit Lino Fábrega, considered it to be a native Zodiac, divided in 18 signs. Eduard Seler, its first modern interpreter, considered it to be the journey of Venus through the underworld. His astronomical interpretation was continued by his disciple, Friedrich Röck, as well as modern scholars such as Susan Milbrath. It was Karl Anton Nowotny, a disciple of Röck, who first questioned the 'astral interpretation' of Seler's school, partly inspired by Alfonso Caso's work on Mixtec codices, where it was demonstrated that those documents were not astronomical, but historical. Nowotny proposed that each of the 18 pages of this section describes a different ritual, proposing the following internal division: and that of Samantha Gerritse, who offers a narratological analysis.

This section depicts the Cihuateteo, the divinized spirits of the women that died in child birth, and the Macuiltonaleque, minor spirits of excess, pleasure and violence.

The directional almanacs depict the four quarters of the universe and the centre, and their corresponding day signs, sacred trees, and 'mantic images'. The 'deer of our flesh' or tonacayo mazatl is a corporeal almanac, associating parts of the human body figured as a deer with day signs. Its meaning is not agreed: according to Codex Tudela, they are mere prognostications for people born at those birth signs, while Codex Rios suggest a medical use.

This section starts in the lower left part of page 53 and continues throughout page 54. It is generally considered, following Seler, that the iconography depicts Venus as the morning star, piercing different characters or iconographic elements in different day signs. Thus, the prognostications associated to the rising of the planet in each day, as well as the next three days, are presented. The interpretation of the iconography of each unit has been related to water (Caiman, Wind, House, Lizard), polities (Snake, Death, Deer, Rabbit), earth and agriculture (Water, Dog, Monkey, Grass), rulers (Reed, Jaguar, Eagle and Vulture), and war (Movement, Flint, Storm, Flower). Recently the scholar Ana Díaz has questioned the calendrical mechanism present in these pages, which don't seem to be fit for this astronomical calculation; however, hieroglyphic evidence from Seibal in the Maya area and the heavily Toltec influenced Maya Codex of Mexico, the oldest Venus almanac in Mesoamerica, suggest that these calculations are central Mexican in origin, rather than Maya.

This section depicts day signs associated to different deities represented as travellers or merchants, and their associated prognostications.

This page depicts Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl back to back. The purpose is unknown, but perhaps it was related to life and death prognostications in medicine.

This section comprises prognostications for marriages. The coefficient of the Tonalpohualli birth sign of the groom and the bride (comprising from 1 to 13) are added, and the resulting sum is compared to each of the images, which go from 2, the lowest result, to 26, the highest. The prognostication is given by the iconography: in general, even numbers are unlucky, odd, lucky.

This almanac divides the 20 day signs into quarters associated with deities and snakes forming a xicalcoliuhqui or meandering pattern.

Similar to section 20, but divided in four quarters rather than two halves.

This almanac presents a Cihuapilli and a Macuiltonaleque, each associated with day signs.

This almanac depicts the ruling deities of half trecena periods, enthroned, receiving cult and with associated mantic images.